First Glance
by Sophiatrixx
Summary: Ariel longed to see what was above the sea  even at nine years old, Ariel dares Flounder to race her to the surface. There, she sees land for the first time and encounters something even more fascinating... CuteOneshot! ArielEric. Please R&R!


**First Glance**  
By ChibiMaylan

**Summary:  
**How Ariel longed to see what was above the sea - at nine years old, Ariel dares Flounder to race her to the surface. There, she sees land for the first time and encounters something even more fascinating... Cute-Oneshot! Ariel/Eric.

**Disclaimer:** I do not in any way or form own the characters of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'. I've only written this for personal and fan-viewing pleasure only!

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_First Glance_

Within Triton's palace walls, Ariel and her sisters resided under the sea. Ariel, the youngest of them all, was the most adventurous mermaid to have ever been born into the family. Ever since she meet Flounder, they would leave the palace and escape to play nearby, with Sebastian's weary eyes on them. With Triton's latest arrangements for another grand night of performances, Sebastian lacked in sleep the past few days. The small red crab scuttled after the young Princess and her fishy friend, as both children swam towards a nearby playground.

"Hurry up, Sebastian!" said Ariel from over her shoulder. The petite little red haired mermaid, only at age nine, called back from behind her shoulder. Flounder, a plump little fish, was also trying to keep up with Ariel's level of swimming but was at a great distance away from her.

"Ah.. Yes, Princess." Sebastian responded, before mumbling about how he only has his tiny legs to walk on the sand with, not a tail fin to swim with. Flounder began to puff, losing his breath slightly, before halting to a stop and bashing into little Ariel's arm. Ariel looked around to see the playground was empty. Her sisters were in singing practice, and didn't allow Ariel to sing just yet. Arista, one of her older sisters, had promised a few days ago that once she was ten, then they would allow her to sing with them. But Ariel had better things to do - to go play outside, in the big blue ocean before her.

As Ariel and Flounder approached the playground, Sebastian settled himself onto a rock where he could clearly see them play. He watched as the little Princess laughed at Flounder for not fitting into a porthole that was propped against the other playground equipment the merpeople had used.

"Alright now, you two stay around here. I'll just...rest me eyes..." said Sebastian.

He then grabbed a comfortable strand of seaweed and with a mighty yawn, he quickly fell asleep. Ariel giggled.

"Sebastian is sleeping! Come on, I'll race you to the top of the ocean, Flounder." said Ariel. Flounder stared at Ariel widely, his pudgy face stricken with fear. Ariel smiled back at him, clearly up for the challenge.

"B-B-But Ariel! You know what Sebastian said about.. you know, 'up there'.." stuttered a very frightened Flounder, as he was pushed down a slippery-slide by Ariel.

"Oh come on, Flounder! I think Sebastian is a big fat liaaaaaar!" said Ariel, poking her tongue at the snoozing crab before them, oblivious to what was to come.

"Sebastian said there are sharks up there to fool us. Besides, I heard Andrina and Aquata last night, giggling about something called 'sailors' and that they were cute for a 'who-man'.. Flounder, what's a 'who-man'?" Ariel asked.

"I dunno what a 'who-man' is... and Ariel.. Don't you think it's dangerous? Hey I know, let's go play with the seaweed patch, you know I like seaweed patches..." Flounder replied, hoping to avoid swimming into higher water.

"Well, I think the 'who-man' is up there. Come on, let's see it! Maybe it's got two tailfins and eight arms..." Ariel gasped at the thought, and began to swim up. Flounder, torn between staying where he was or following, watched as Ariel purposely took three steps higher towards the surface.

"A-A-Ariel!" Flounder gushed, before following suit as Ariel giggled and began to race against her little friend towards the sunlight. Flounder's small fins swam as hard as he could, and he finally got in front of Ariel's face and placed her to a halt. He looked cross, and took his small fins to his friends' cheeks.

"Ariel! We shouldn't go any further.. what happens if we get eaten? What will I tell Sebastian if you get hurt by a 'who-man'.." asked Flounder.

"Flounder, it's okay. If you are too scaredy catfish then I will go myself!" she said, and pushed him aside. This time, she meant it. Flounder watched as his young friend began to pick up her usual speed of swimming, and finally hit the water's edge towards the surface. Ariel gasped, as air filled her lungs. It was a strange yet refreshed feeling for her. The little mermaid looked around, to see a blue sky with white puffy looking things and the never ending line of blue ocean. She breathed in again, and thought it was so much fun. Flounder, now reaching the surface, gave a mighty yelp when his face hit the surface.

"What's happened? Where's the water gone.." he asked Ariel.

"I don't know, and look up there, its all blue and white." She replied, pointing to the sky. Crossing her small arms to her chest, she added:

"I don't see why Sebastian didn't want us to come up here.." said Ariel. Flounder nodded, still looking out to sea.

"Okay Ariel, now you've seen it, now let's go back down..." Flounder finally said, after a thorough look at the unknown surroundings around the two children.

Suddenly, a large gush of wind swooped past at Flounder, and a cry was heard. Ariel screamed as Flounder quickly ducked from whatever had tried to attack him. Ariel began to cry, as a small white thing with wings began to turn and come back to attack again.

"Ariel!" Flounder called from at least 1 metre down below the surface. But Ariel was too frightened to move, as she watched the small creature turn and swoop back down towards her, it's wings flapping as it went lower. Then it hit her.

"Ouch, tough landing that was." came a voice from above her head. Ariel uncovered her scared eyes, to find the creature had roughly landed on her head. He was no bigger than her two hands put together, and had a fluffy white body.

"W-Who are you?" Ariel asked quietly, looking up at him.

"Hiya kiddo, my name is Scuttle. Where'd your fish friend go? Did I scare him away?" said the creature, circling around on Ariel's head to look below at the blue sea. Seeing no potential harm, Ariel introduced herself.

"My name is Ariel, and I am a mermaid." she said. Scuttle nearly jumped off her head at the surprise for finding out she was a mermaid.

"A mermaid! Wow, never seen that before. Of course, Pa always had told me of you lot. Always keeping to the bottom of the sea... So, what are you doing out here, kiddo?" asked Scuttle, now sitting on her head. Flounder had then just appeared. Ariel introduced their new friend, and spoke of them coming up to the surface, wanting to know what was beyond the light that always shone brightly in the day and disappeared at night and what the surface life was about. Scuttle seemed older and wiser to Ariel, she noticed, as he began to talk to them about himself being a seagull, a thing called 'land' and finally, something about the 'who-mans' and ships that pass the deep blue waters close to his home.

"What are the 'who-mans'?" Ariel asked curiously, her big blue eyes looking up at the bird.

"You mean 'humans?' Why, they are.. hmm, how to put it.." Scuttle then went into a deeper thought for words to tell the children.

"Well, I dunno! I guess they're like you, except they don't swim much and don't have a tailfin like you do." he responded.

"You know what kiddo, I saw a few of them humans not long ago on the beach. Come on, follow me!" Scuttle said, before lifting off from Ariel's head. Flounder hesitated for a moment, uncertain whether they should be following such a strange creature. But for Ariel, she soon followed, swimming towards the direction the bird was going. Flounder began to follow as fast as he could until finally after what seemed like a long legged race, they finally stopped against a few rocks jutting out of the sea. Ariel hopped onto the rock that Scuttle had landed on. Scuttle pointed his left wing at the beach.

"Over there! I knew they'd still be around" he said. Ariel's eyes followed the direction of Scuttle's wing, and exclaimed.

"They do look like us.. except they have.." said Ariel.

"legs, kiddo. They walk and swim with it. Funny lookin' things, they are - wait! where are you going?" shouted the seagull.

Ariel's curiosity came out of hand, as she dived back into the water and began to swim closer to the shore. She hid against another rock, and watched the child. He seemed to be around her age, his grubby looking hands moulding a pile of sand into a sandcastle. He had black hair and blue eyes. Ariel was truely in danger for being spotted, as she was so close to the human boy without him knowing. The human boy was humming as he worked on his sand castle, digging and tapping sand into place. His face was round and he was wearing a t-shirt with a truck on it. Ariel couldn't believe her eyes at what she had found, and couldn't wait to tell her sisters.

"He's cute." she said to herself. her eyes then looked towards the boy's other human friend, a older man sitting under an umbrella in a black suit and tie, fanning himself with closed eyes.

It was only then, when she heard the boy had stopped humming, that she noticed he was staring in her direction. He began to stumble and stood up, nearly knocking off half his sandcastle. Ariel gasped, scared of being found, she dived back into the shallow water and swam as fast as she could back into deeper water where Scuttle and Flounder had been watching from afar on the outer group of rocks.

"Grimsby!" called the boy, as he turned to the older human sitting under the umbrella. He began to run to Grimsby's side, hugging his legs.

"Ahem, dear Prince, what is it?" Grimsby asked, taking the young Prince into his arms.

"In the water.. it was.. it was.." the young Prince was lost for words. Grimsby looked out at the water where the young Prince pointed his sandy finger at.

"There seems to be nothing there, Prince Eric. Come now, you must be hungry. Let us go back to the castle. Max must be waiting for you.." said Grimsby, as he placed Eric back onto the sand.

Nodding in agreement, Eric took Grimsby's hand as they walked back up the stairs towards his castle, but couldn't help but look back at the waves that cascaded against the rocks. There and then, on a large and distant rock, he would've sworn he had seen a seagull and a fish out of the water's surface, talking with a particular little girl he had seen just the moment before.

_Fin._

**A/N:** Thanks for reading, please don't hesitate to review, feedback appreciated. This was my first Disney fanfiction I think! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Ariel and Eric is love!


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